I’m not going to kid you; playing Jazz Guitar is extremely difficult at best and almost downright impossible at worst. However there are things you can do to improve your improvisation skills and feeling and we’ll discuss them throughout this multi part series so look for additional parts in the near future.

Practice

What can I say about practice? Just do it and do it often! Do it everyday. When you think you have done enough do it again.

I am not just talking about picking up the guitar and playing a few songs I am talking about real practicing for the environment that you will eventually be playing in which is, of course, in an ensemble with other musicians who we hope will always be better than you.

Here are the basics…

When practicing always use a metronome!

If I didn’t make that part clear perhaps this may help: ALWAYS USE A METRONOME!

If you feel that you don’t need a metronome stop reading this article, stop practicing and go get some ice cream because you will get the same or even better results and you certainly will enjoy yourself a whole lot more in the process if you do. If you are committed read on.

Still with me?

When using your metronome try to feel your timing on different clicks. For instance for a swing feel have your metronome click on beats 2 and 4 rather than 1 and 3. This will give you an instant swing feel and also take away that nasty crutch so you are forced to know where beat 1 really is.

We never, ever, want to rely on our drummer, who may be in the middle of a complex experimental improvisation just when you need him/her the most, to tell us where beat 1 is. How many times have you been in that situation?

Sound simple? It is!

Sound easy? Try it for a month and you let me know how it goes.

Let’s delve into this a little. When practicing using this technique of displacing metronome clicks for beats try these: practice a 3/4 tune using the metronome clicking once per measure and only on beat 2. Then switch to only on beats 3. See how the feeling changes. Practice it, learn it, feel it and then you can start to own it.

If you want to get fancy place the metronome to click every fifth beat while you play a tune in 3. This will shift the accents and feeling from bar to bar and will also allow your brain to break free from it’s learned behavior which is designed to make you not want to think.

What did you say?

That’s right! More times than not the human brain is your biggest enemy. It always seeks comfort and practicing in the fashion described above is not at all comfortable for your brain. In these cases I recommend telling your brain what my son often likes to say, To bad…, so sad!

We as musicians need to experience and comprehend the natural tendencies of the brain’s normal behavior so we can learn to truly challenge ourselves to open up our minds to the gargantuan creative possibilities that await us when we do. This doesn’t happen by accident nor does it happen by itself nor will it come easy. It takes an extreme effort on our parts.

Whether you have your instrument with you or not you can practice your timing. If you get a small battery operated metronome, which I recommend, you can bring it with you when you are driving back and forth to work. Practice the above examples in your car while singing. Don’t worry if you can’t sing you are trying to own these feelings and if you can’t articulate these feelings with your voice you will never truly own them.

I have outlined several examples for displacement of beats. The idea is simple enough so that you can come up with more deviations on your own and you should keep changing them when you practice.

The point here is that true understanding and your eventual ownership of various beats and feelings associated with them do not reside strictly inside those beats and feelings. By looking only inside the beats you are shutting off all creative thinking that is necessary to truly exploit their full potential.

Real understanding resides outside and you must find out what that means. To truly find it you must force yourself and be willing to look everywhere else but the beats themselves. This simple metronome technique will get you started and point you on your journey to achieving that goal. Don’t limit yourself to applying this technique only to timing but that statement is for another part of this series.

Have fun, practice and always play your heart out!

John Belthoff is a Professional Audio Engineer and an Avid Web Developer who plays and also teaches Jazz Guitar in his spare time. His latest projects include the Internet Production Guide and he owns a small Asp Hosting Company. You can contact him at his personal web site Studio JB.

Some of the most influential and innovative guitarists have emerged from the world of Jazz often with breathtakingly fast technique and intricate phrasing Jazz maestros can match anything that rock and roll can produce indeed the Jazz genre has been popular for almost 100 years and from trad jazz to new world fusion pioneers they are a diverse breed producing a wide spectrum of sound.

So what makes a great Jazz guitarist? Flamboyance technique and a dash of magic our top 10 list features guitarists who have their own unique styles and sound often mimicked but never matched. Want to get into Jazz guitar? Well check out these ten great players.

1. Joe Pass

With a career that spanned 50 years, including time spent with Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Herb Ellis Pass became renowned for his solo style that utilized complex finger picking technique coupled with a deft left hand phrasing. With an Epiphone signature guitar released in his honor Pass is a true great

2. Pat Metheny

Part of the modern Jazz set Metheny is a real innovator on guitar mixing a broad palette of musical influences from rock to folk, orchestral and traditional Jazz. Hard to pin down with a specific technique but with influences from Joe Pass to Wes Montgomery hes has a career that spans 30 years and remains highly regarded.

3. Les Paul

One of histories most important guitarists. Central in the development of the modern guitar and recording techniques. It was however as a Jazz Guitarist that he became famous with a fast fluid style reminiscent of the great Django Reinheardt but with a distinctive country twang hes blazed a trail throughout his career the fact that Les Paul still played to audiences in his 90s is testament to how important this man is.

4. Wes Montgomery

Montgomery played with a distinctive style discarding the use of a pick he played with mostly with his thumb resting his fingers on the guitars body. With intricate phrasing including use of Octaves Montgomery sound is easily distinguishable despite a career that was cut short at the tender age of 43 Montgomery still had time to record a string of hit Jazz albums and influence a wealth or artists.

5. Charlie Christian

Hugely influencial in the Jazz genre and one of first mainstream Electric Guitarists but with a frustratingly brief career (dying at the age of 25) renowned for his playing with the Benny Goodman orchestra in the 30s and 40s

6. John Mclaughlin

Incredible Jazz Fusion artist part of the Mahavishnu Orchestra fusion group in the 70s. With a blinding fast technique and influenced by world music sound McLaughlin is a unique voice in the world of Jazz.

7. Herb Ellis

Reaching the Jazz audience with his stint with the Oscar Peterson trio in the 50s Ellis has continued to record and play with a range of artists with a fast – fluid but still melodic style Ellis has a distinctive voice in the world of jazz guitar and inspiring tecfhnique.

8. Charlie Byrd

Grammy award winning and with a career that spanned 40 years classically trained Byrd was heavily influenced by the South American bossa nova sound made his name playing with Stan Getz during the 1960s -

9. Kenny Burrell

With a style that marries a soulful technique with a love of bebop, Burrell has played with a bucket load of greats including Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and Benny Goodman with a treasure of over 40 albums and career spanning over 50 years Burrell is a true Jazz master

10. Django Reinhardt

No list of Jazz guitarists would be complete without mentioning Django with a Gypsy upbringing and musical influence he had a fascinating technique which involved picking close to the bridge and one string solos influenced by few but influencing many he remains perhaps the most important Jazz Guitarist of all time.

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(1) The BMG Music Service offers the best deal you’ll find — 11 CDs for the price of shipping ($2.79 each) when you buy one CD at full club price, which is typically about $15 plus shipping. That works out to about $4 per CD. Its chief competitor, Columbia House, has an offer that works out to about $8 per CD.

(2) When you join, you will receive a catalog in the mail about every three weeks, along with a postcard that highlights a featured selection in the genre you selected when you joined. You must return this postcard by the due date or the club will send you the selection. You can decline online, however, by logging into your account. This makes the process much easier.

(3) If you forget to return the card and receive a CD you don’t want, the clubs are good about letting you return it. But the beauty of this system for the clubs is that this happens often enough and many people don’t bother sending it back. They just pay the invoice.

(4) If you don’t see the CDs you want in a newspaper or magazine advertisement visit the club’s site to browse. Copy down the item number of the CDs into the form (some titles will not be available as free selections and this will be indicated). Also, the clubs usually do not have the latest and greatest albums until months after their release.

(5) The clubs press their own CDs, which some people feel makes them inferior. But if you can hear the difference, you have better senses than most humans.

(6) The clubs no longer have toll-free numbers, so the best way to contact them is by email. Always include your account number. The current phone number and email address is listed each month in your membership catalog.

William Pilgrim has been a member of both BMG and Columbia House. You can read more about the clubs and their history at http://www.dealdude.com by searching for keyword cd clubs. Copyright 2005 cc Media, Inc.

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When I saw this title, I was afraid and Im still afraid regarding my opinion about the subject. The subject is complex and difficult so I cannot resolve it overnight. I am an African. I do things the African way. I cannot write about African American music like a Western scholar. In my culture we live the past and the future in the present. When I listen to some African American music I can feel the past, the present and the future all at the same time. Now, the best way for me to handle this subject is to work by questions and answers.

[Question Yaya! Who do you think you are?

Yaya Diallo – I don’t think! I am Farafin, which means I am a dark skin man. The word Africa is the Arabic name for our continent. In Bambara we call the so-called Africa Farafina. Farafina means the land of dark skin people. I am from Farafina and I am proud of it. I don’t want to be somebody else. People in general say African American. I would say American Farafin, which means dark skin human being who lives in America.

[Question What is your African background?

Yaya Diallo – I come from far away. I was born in 1946 in Fienso (French Sudan), now Mali. My parents were nomadic. When I was very young I used to travel a lot. I grew up in the bush far from any western civilization. The music that I heard was very traditional and played live. I did not have a radio or TV. I had the opportunity to listen to the music of the different ethnic groups from the Ivory Coast, Burkina and Ghana. In some villages I heard Muslim songs coming from the mosques. By night, I would enjoy the frog symphonic orchestras. From 1946 to 1960 I was living in complete nature. My musical training is a long story but you can learn more from my book The Healing Drum.

[Question What are your feelings about the civilized world?

Yaya Diallo – In the city I had strange feelings. I saw people listen to music through what I thought was two kinds of boxes. The first was a radio. You could change the singer with the tuning button, I thought. The second needed records. It read 78, 45 and 33 1/2. You had to adjust everything with something but I did not have a clue as to what. Even still, the only music that I heard was the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Johnny Holliday.

[Question What do you think about the word African American?

Yaya Diallo – Dark skin people living in America are not different from people I met in Africa (Farafina). To me they are just different ethnic groups like the Yoruba, the Bantou, the Zoulou or the Touareg. Africa is not one culture. We have thousands and thousands of languages and different music. My wife is an African American from Louisville, KY. Her mother is from Dark Corner, MS and her father from Jackson, TN. Like my wife and family there was one African American man, James Brown, who saved my life with his music.

[Question How can an African American man save the life of a traditional African?

Yaya Diallo – In 1967 I left my country to go to Montreal, Canada. On my way, in Paris, I saw a big picture of James Brown in the Olympia Theater. In my mind I thought, Oh! A black man in Olympia in Paris, France. In Montreal I was looking for a place to dance or listen to the music that I loved. One day I found a radio station that played black music. I heard James Brown and felt at home.

[Question What do you think about African American music?

Yaya Diallo – I always say that I don’t think, I feel. When we talk about African American music we talk about Spirituals, Blues, Funk, Jazz, Gospel, Rap, dance music, etc. I want to talk on each one by one.

When people in Canada were dancing the twist, jerk and go-go, in my country a French man named Johnny Holliday was playing bad versions of Wilson Pickett and Ray Charles music in French. In America I found out this French man was a robber. He stole the music, sang it in French and looked like a genius for us Africans.

[Question What did you feel when you started to dance?

Yaya Diallo – I used to go out to dance to Wilson Pickett, James Brown, and Sly and the Family Stones music. For me they were Africans. They had good beats, good feelings and most important, African Soul. I did not feel that from Chinese or European music. In the 70s I discovered the Funk music, The O’Jays, Parliament, Ohio Players, Kool and the Gang and JR Walker and the All Stars. I felt I was at home when I knew the Motown Family (Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Temptations and Stevie Wonder). I could survive because I had those kinds of musicians.

[Question In terms of music, what is the link between African and African Americans?

Yaya Diallo – African Americans are Africans from the village and sadly they just don’t know it! When you listen to the music you can find out. Kool and The Gang played Funky Stuff. When you listen to the drum part you will get the Dounouba part of the dance Sounou. Sounou was played in the 15th century and today is the dance young people love. In Africa we learn the past in the present and teach it to the next generation. The African Americans sometimes do not know how African they are.

[Question Why can you say that they are African?

Yaya Diallo – The first time I heard the Four Tops I thought I was listening to the Bambara Farmers in the evening after a hard working day. The Temptations reminded me of the men Fire dancers and singers. I can listen to Temptations but I am afraid to see them. I am not initiated to the Fire dance and the music brings out memories about the secret ceremonies that happened afar in the village. Aretha Franklin is for me a great Djeli-mousso coming from the Empire of Mali in the 13th century. When I listen to African American music I don’t worry about the meaning, only what I feel.

[Question What do you think about Jazz?

Yaya Diallo – Really, to tell the truth, I don’t feel jazz. Many people coming from Africa feel the same way. I learned about jazz in 1980 when I recorded my first album, Nangape, on Onzou Records. That opened the door for me with jazz. Jazz magazines like Cadence and Down Beat wrote articles on me like I was a jazz man. I was invited to do workshops at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY. I met jazz big names like Art Blakey. He said, Yaya is the only African that I can jazz, that I can play with and be comfortable. I completed a trio with Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell in the Symphony Space in New York.

[Question What about Gospel?

Yaya Diallo – To me gospel means religion or church but my father-in-law changed my mind. When going to church with him I saw a big band and a big choir. People were singing and I forgot that I was in church. I was surprised; I saw ladies in a trance like in my village but they called it shouting. This reminded me of the Mania Secret Society where only woman go into a trance when praising god (See The Healing Drum).

[Question What is rap?

Yaya Diallo – I love rap! I use to lie about buying rap and say that it was for my children. Rap is the old tradition of the Fulani people in Mali. It tells life stories through poetry that is recited quickly. Nomadic people have to explain their daily journey through this same quick form, but without the foul language. Today, the young people think that they have reinvented the wheel.

[Question Yaya, what is wrong with African American music today?

Yaya Diallo – Today everything is easy. Instead of buying a drum set you buy a drum machine. Computers do everything. You can get almost every sound by pressing a button. This is the type of world that we live in today. The young Africans love it like we used to love James Brown. Time is the only thing that has changed!

[Question How did African American music change American Society?

Yaya Diallo – We changed everything! We changed the style of dance; we created new sounds, new styles, and new way to dress … EVERYTHING! Country music is the white version of the Blues. Rock-n-roll comes from our music. People forget that Jimmie Hendricks was a Blues player that just changed his sound and look. Without James Brown, Sly and Family Stone and the Motown Family there would be no Madonna, no Celiene Dion, no techno, and no disco. African Americans brought this to the world. It is sad because people do not recognize it. We changed the world and it will never be the same again.

[Question How do people know you in America?

Yaya Diallo – I am the author of two books, The Healing Drum and At the Threshold of the African Soul. I have four CDs, Nanagape, The Healing Drum, Dombaa Folee, and Dounoukan. I thank Onzou Records, the first company that trusted me to make my first album in 1980. That was not easy!

The History of African American Music by Malian musician/author Yaya Diallo was written to celebrate Black History Month. The article is translated into English by LaKesha Churn and edited for English grammar and clarification by Stephen Conroy, Producer/Publisher of the independent label to first produce Yaya Diallo in 1980 on Onzou records, http://www.onzou.com

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I met New York jazzman Tim Armacost in college almost 25 years ago, at a time when we were both grappling not only with what careers we ought to pursue, but with what kind of adults we wanted to become. Tim comes from an illustrious family, boasting more than its fair share of bank presidents, ambassadors and college presidents. I would not have been surprised if he had gone into finance, diplomacy, or academia. And yet, with seemingly limitless professional options open to him, Tim chose a more modest path that of the jazz musician. For two decades hes been traveling the globe, pursuing his career as a professional tenor saxophonist, in such exotic locations as Amsterdam, Delhi, and Tokyo. His albums, including Live at Smalls and The Wishing Well, have received high praise from the Washington Post and Jazz Times. Fluent in Japanese, Tim is also a longtime student of Zen Buddhism; his meditation practice infuses his music and contributes strongly to his relaxed yet passionate performance style.

I asked Tim to share a few of his thoughts on team leadership from a jazz improv perspective. Here are his insightful comments:

What I’ve learned from leading jazz groups, and from being a sideman for that matter, is that a group functions best when the leader is strong, confident, and has a vision. Within the context of that, he must also give the members of the band the feeling that they are totally free to express themselves within the boundaries of what the leader is setting out to do. I often find myself describing an improvising quartet as an excellent example of living, dynamic democracy. The jazz group was born to express the American spirit, and it has evolved into a form that is capable of expressing the spirits of communities of musicians throughout the world.

The leader needs to pick members who will be compatible, and create an environment of mutual respect. With this in place, the sidemen can relax into a feeling of safety, from which they can explore and take risks without being judged unfairly for mistakes. If the leader is too selfish or demanding, the band members start to see themselves as just being there to do a job and collect a paycheck, and they lose respect for the leader. But more importantly, they become detached from the music and go on autopilot, ceasing to be actively expressing their own true music. On the flip side, if the leader defers too much to others in the band, the sidemen lose respect for him because they expect to be led somewhere interesting. This situation can result in everyone acting like a leader to pick up the slack in the band, and arguments over decision making and the direction of the music inevitably ensue.

Then there’s the issue of swing. There’s the fundamental level of swing where everyone is feeling the beat together, and the music has natural momentum. Then there’s the next level where four artists all hearing the music in its moment of creation together generate an incredible propulsion. The rush of that stream carries each individual and the group into a place where they are all playing in a way that no one imagined before or could possibly recreate. The music is not only in the moment, it is of the moment. That’s what I live for! Occasionally it happens, and I dream of the day when I can play enough and have enough work for my band to live in that place more.

So I see the wisdom of team leadership lying in the ability to acknowledge and nurture each individual’s freedom and creativity while simultaneously having the vision to create a group dynamic that takes the individuals bound together to a new and unforeseen place.

Editors Note: Business team leaders can learn much from the world of Jazz improv. Before your next meeting, considering asking yourself the following questions:

1)Do I have a strong, confident vision for my team, and if so, what is it and have I communicated it sufficiently? Am I taking people somewhere interesting?

2)Do I provide my sidemen the freedom to express themselves within the boundaries of my vision?

3)On the flipside, do I provide so much freedom that my team members are confused about the direction theyre being asked to take?

4)Do we swing as a team? Are we attaining, on a regular basis, that feeling of flow you get when people are functioning at their highest performance level? If not, what aspects of my leadership style might be preventing this?

Let the spirits of Miles Davis and Duke Ellington be your guide.

(Visit Tim Armacost on the web at www.timarmacost.com)

Dave Blum is the founder of Dr. Clue treasure hunts, the national leader in business teambuilding with a treasure hunt game as the core simulation.

Visit us on the web at http://www.drclue.com

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